A Test series of nasty encounters

It was a miserable end to Vernon Philander’s Test cricket career: getting fined 15% of his match fee in the fourth and final Test against England at The Wanderers, for swearing at Jos Buttler after getting him out.

The incident was the fourth nasty little encounter which saw players being sanctioned by the International Cricket Council.

Kagiso Rabada had been given another demerit and banned from playing in the last Test, for aggressively celebrating a wicket. Buttler was fined for swearing at, and goading, Philander when he was batting. And England batsman Ben Stokes was fined for his foul-mouthed exchange with a spectator on Friday.

Nasty little episodes sum up what was a nasty little Test series for South Africa. England are, undoubtedly, a good team, but the Proteas’ batting and bowling made them look like invincible superstars through most of the series.

The new “brains trust” at Cricket SA – Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher – have made little difference, although to be fair they have a huge task ahead of them to rebuild our cricket from the grassroots level and take us once again into the top tier.

Perhaps all the Proteas could donate 15% of their total match fees to development.

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